The Space Between

by Scott J Robinson

  "Well, all those big holes or funnels or whatever they are on the outside of the ship seem to do two things. Something goes out of them, and something comes in."

  Kim ignored that. "First of all, for the sake of convenience, let’s say that the funnel surrounded by those four antennas is at the front. No, let's call it north. Okay."

  "All right."

  The look on Keeble's face showed what he thought of that idea, but Kim knew it would be best because she was sure she knew how it worked. She was pretty sure she knew how it worked. She smiled and did a little jig in her seat.

  "Here's how it is," she said. "Gravity can be funneled out any of those funnel things and that obviously dictates the direction you travel. Right? Right. So, what you do is, you use this ball to point the gravity in the right direction."

  "So, where is the gravity now, then?" Keeble asked. "How do we make it funnel?"

  Kim examined the main controls. "We use this lever for thrust," Kim said. "Forward and backward."

  "And why does this room spin around? And when the room spins, why doesn't the ball?"

  "Only the room spins and the ball doesn't because there isn't really any forward or backward for this ship. We can go in whatever direction we want without actually turning the ship around. So, if the room didn't spin we'd sometimes be looking in the wrong direction. And the ball doesn't turn with the room because we want to be able to look in all directions without actually changing directions."

  "But the lever? You said it was to make us go forward and backwards, then you said there is no forward or backward."

  That was obvious as well. There was a blue dot on the top side of the range and a red one at the bottom. "This way means we move towards the red dot." Or was it away? Kim pushed the lever a fraction of a centimeter away from the neutral position. She'd forgotten the engine was running, until the Hakahei started to move.

  "Shit. Shit. Shit." It took a moment for Kim to gather her wits and shift the lever back to neutral. Luckily, she hadn't moved the lever far and luckily the dot was directing them away from the wall. Momentum carried the ship forward, and it wasn't until they scraped along the side of another vessel that they finally stopped.

  "Okay," she muttered, "we move away from the dot. I hope someone remembered to renew the insurance."

  The others all looked at her.

  "Give me a break."

  "So, are we going to sit here until the Americans work out how to shoot us, or are we going to leave?"

  Kim looked at the others.

  "I'd rather crash out there than get shot in here," Keeble said. The others didn't look so sure.

  "But they can't get us," Kim said. "They can't get in. Otherwise they would have gotten into the ship at Area 51. In fact, this one is probably tougher, because I think the other one is only a plane."

  "So we just sit here until we starve, then?"

  "I found food in the hold. Dried, sealed, in tins. All sorts of long-life stuff."

  "Long life? 50,000 years?"

  "Maybe."

  "So what was the point of all this if we're just going to sit here?"

  "The point was to talk to the hurgon and stop this war."

  "Right. How will we do that sitting here?"

  "Does the radio work? The hurgon might be able to hear us from here."

  Keeble sighed. "Try it then."

  "Right. Meledrin."

  "Yes, Kim?"

  "See if you can get the hurgon on the radio for me."

  "I am not aware of the method for doing that. Is it accomplished from this work station?"

  "Yes. I think so."

  Cuto interrupted and Meledrin turned to listen "Cuto says that the hangar doors are closing."

  "What? Shit."

  The two huge hangar doors were starting to slide closed like twin glaciers. Kim froze for a moment and totally forgot the little she knew about flying the ship.

  "Don't just sit there," Keeble said. "We're quickly losing one of our only two options."

  Kim took a deep breath. She fiddled with the steering ball — all forward, no up or down, and watched the doors close some more.

  "Move, woman."

  Kim closed one eye and nudged the thrust lever.

  "Go straight, for Whistler's sake."

  "I'm pointing at the door but it isn't going that way." They pushed amidst a flotilla of smaller ships until she adjusted slightly and had them going in generally the right direction.

  "Of course it isn't your fault. Never is."

  "Keeble," Meledrin said, "is it not true that the engines were incorrectly aligned?"

  Keeble grunted. "Maybe the engines aren't aligned with the steering ball," he admitted.

  Kim didn't care. "Whatever," she snapped. "It wasn't going straight." She tried to calm down.

  "Well, we're going the right way now, I suppose." Keeble gestured towards the doors. "A bit faster would be good, though."

  They weren't going to make it, was what he meant. Kim nudged the thrust lever a bit further. It was hardly above neutral at all, but the ship lurched forward, picking up speed. The Americans were either scattering again or firing their weapons, as if each hoped their bullet would be the one that broke the camel's back.

  "Are we going to make it?" Kim asked. The doors seemed to be closing very quickly now, although they probably hadn't changed speed at all.

  "I don't think so."

  Cuto said something as well, but Meledrin didn't bother translating. The elf was staring at the doors as if indignation alone would keep them open. Apparently it wouldn't.

  Kim adjusted her aim slightly, increasing thrust again. They scraped along the side of a smaller ship and slewed slightly. Before she could work out how to fix the problem they crashed into the edge of one of the still closing doors. The ship nearly stopped. It spun, pushing against the door, until they were almost facing back the way they'd come. The other door was approaching. Amidst her panic, Kim had a moment of inspiration. She reversed the thrust and the ship hesitated for a moment before popping out onto the exterior platform while Kim spun the bridge.

  The ship quickly gained speed. It dropped serenely over the edge and out over the forest. It slid down towards the bottom of the valley, nudging trees out of the way as it went.

  "More up would be nice," Keeble said. He was holding on tightly.

  Meledrin had her eyes closed. Tuki was staring out the window like a man watching a train rush towards him.

  Kim nodded, trying to think. There was the steering ball and the altitude knob. She tried the knob first. The ship certainly got further from the ground, but not much. It seemed to max out at about a hundred meters.

  Keeble shook his head. "Space looks more like a planet than I thought it would."

  "Shut up, Keeble." Biting her lip as they continued towards the bottom of the valley Kim examined the steering ball. She reached out for it. So many things could go wrong. Was she missing something? "What have we missed?"

  "Certainly not any trees. We hit every one, I think."

  "Well what about... Have you checked on life support?"

  "What?"

  "Life support. I told you there's no air in space, remember? So something on this ship makes air. And the ship has to be airtight so it doesn't all escape."

  "How am I supposed to check that?'

  Meledrin, much put upon, sighed and went to look. It didn't take long.

  "Everything is green," Keeble said. "That's good, right?"

  "I think it is. What color were the displays when the Americans were shooting at us before? Green is good on Earth today, but how am I supposed to know. Shit. What about fuel?"

  "Checked it earlier. According to the computers we have 87% fuel."

  "Right. Okay. Are we ready then, folks?"

  Nobody said they weren't. Kim still wasn't ready. She didn't know if she would ever be, but she decreased the thrust slightly and spun the steering ball so the dot was facing almost directly down. She felt the heavy hand of G-fo
rces for a moment as the ship started to climb.

  33: You Are Here

  Tuki stared as the ship surged upwards. All he could see was sky, but he could not take his eyes off it.

  I am closer to the Goddess than any moai has been for millennia, he thought.

  He offered a silent prayer to Poti. He would have looked to the four points of the compass to offer his thanks, but he was strapped in his chair, and with no ground on which to locate himself, the idea of directions seemed meaningless.

  The world was nowhere to be seen, and suddenly, though it was surely still day below, an endless array of stars sprang into view.

  "Batteries are charging," Keeble said. "The ship is taking something in through the funnels that aren't being used and converting it to power."

  The dwarf sounded a lot more vague than he had recently, and Tuki wondered if he was slipping back into wherever he had been before. He stole a worried glance at his friend. Immediately he knew nothing was wrong. Keeble could hardly concentrate on his monitor. He stole glances at it every now and then, but otherwise the scene outside trapped his gaze.

  "Don't worry about the batteries, Keeb'. What about life support? Check that again." Kim was obviously trying to keep her mind on the matters at hand, as well, but not having much more success than Keeble. Tuki saw her craning her neck to try and see everything at once. "Wow."

  Meledrin did not look like she had been affected at all. She continued to translate into Cuto's sign language as she calmly surveyed the view, as if she had seen something as magnificent every day of her life.

  "We're still moving," Tuki said after a moment. He thought it might be a good idea if they stopped, for a short while at least, so they could get their bearings. He watched Meledrin, trying to decipher her signals, but it wasn't easy.

  "Shit, shit, shit. We aren't just moving, we're accelerating."

  Tuki watched the view. He didn't see what Kim did to halt their progress but could feel when it happened. He thought he could tell when they stopped completely.

  "Tuki, can you show us a view of where we are?"

  Tuki looked at Kim for a moment, his heart racing. She wanted him to show her on the skyglass. But no, not just that, she wanted to see from her own seat.

  This is what I am here for, Tuki thought. Keeble is here to fix the engines. Kim is here to drive, and Meledrin to talk to people. I am here to show them all the way. Which was a horrible thought. He was merely a go'gan. Did they not realize? He should not be telling them anything. He should wait and watch and do as he was told.

  "Tuki?"

  "Yes, mo'min?"

  "Show us."

  Tuki had been practicing with the controls earlier, but suddenly he could remember nothing at all. He decided to work on the skyglass first and worry about the rest later.

  Touching his finger to the cool, smooth glass, he spoke the word that made the 'glass the center of the view. Then he made the view step back slightly, so more could be seen. And again. Soon, the world below was in view — or was there no below, now — and the moon halfway around the far side. Plus fifty-three yellow dots that could only be other ships like their own, except driven by the hurgon. Not meteors as he had once thought.

  "One thing I don't understand," Keeble said from across the other side of the room. Tuki tried to block the sounds out as he concentrated. "I understand how we were all shaped this way by the gods so we could all do our work on these starships. Well, not how, but why. Dwarves are small so we can climb around in all the little nooks and crannies to fix things. Meledrin looks all calm and controlled and important or something, maybe so we look good to strangers. And Kim, you... Well, I don't know about you. Maybe flying the ship doesn't need anything special. But Tuki? If he's just here to be a map-reader, why is he so big? I mean, he could do that if he was my size, couldn't he?"

  Tuki did look up then. The whole conversation was really about him. He listened as he worked.

  Kim was nodding. "I've been thinking about that, and I think I know the answer. There's a book on Earth called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's a comedy book, but still. In it, the author describes a form of torture. People are taken into a room and shown a map of the entire universe, the whole thing, with a little sign saying 'you are here' pointing to where they are in the universe. And it doesn't just show them, it makes them understand."

  "So?"

  "Well, most individuals in the book go crazy when they see that, because they realize just how totally insignificant they really are."

  "That's just stupid."

  "Not really. You don't know how big the universe is, Keeble. I'll tell you."

  "Are you sure I won't go crazy?" Keeble said with a smile.

  "No, because you won't really understand. You won't be able to picture this. Okay, light travels at about 300,000 kilometers per second, I think. More or less. Do you understand that much? Light isn't an instantaneous thing – it has to travel."

  "Like sound?"

  "Exactly. Only much, much, quicker."

  "300,000 kilometers per second?"

  "Yep. Now, a light-year isn't a measure of time, but a measure of distance. It's the distance light will travel in a standard year of Earth time. Still with me?"

  "Yes."

  Tuki didn't think he sounded sure.

  "You know how long a second is?"

  "Yes."

  "Right, well an Earth year is..." Kim squinted and cocked her head to one side. "Shit. Sixty seconds in a minute, 3600 seconds in an hour, twenty four hours in a day..."

  Tuki worked it out easily. "86,400 seconds in a day," he said.

  And Kim turned to look at him. Tuki looked back down at the skyglass and blushed.

  "Okay." Kim was nodding her head slowly and still looking at Tuki when he stole a glance a few seconds later. "86,400 seconds in a day. And 365 days in a year, Tuki?"

  "31,536,000 seconds in a year."

  "So, this light travelling at 300,000 kilometers per second will travel how many kilometers in a year, Tuki?"

  He juggled the numbers in his head. He started to sweat. "Do you want exactly?"

  "No, close will do."

  "Well, I do not know how to say the number. In the decimal system that humans seem to use, it is a bit more than nine with twelve zeros after it."

  "Nine trillion? Do you know the decimal system, Keeble?"

  "Yes."

  "So you understand a nine with twelve zeros after it?"

  "Of course."

  "Big number isn't it?"

  "Yes."

  "That many kilometers in a light year. Right?"

  "Yes, but I don't see the point. Who uses numbers that big?"

  "That's the thing, bud'. From the star the Earth orbits to the next closest star is about four light years. Or five light years. Four or five light years."

  "Four of those light years in distance?" Keeble gaped.

  Tuki looked back to his work so as not to stare at the dwarf. He noticed that the dots that showed the alien ships were starting to move. The picture Tuki was looking at was still only in the skyglass.

  Kim continued. "That's right. Now, I'm sure you're sitting there thinking, 'Wow, what a big number that is'. And intellectually, I'm sure you realize that completely. But to realize and to truly understand are two different things. I don't understand. I think that if I did, I may well just curl up and whimper for the rest of my life. Especially since I now think I can fly between those stars, and it's not just an interesting notion any more. But I think Tuki really has to understand.

  "And, I think, because he has to carry all those huge ideas of numbers and space around in his head, the gods had to add that extra layer to his brain. Airman Dongoske said he had an extra bit in there." Kim got a thoughtful look. "Or maybe that's the bit that let's him control the skyglass."

  "Umm... mo'min..." Tuki said.

  "So? Why make his body bigger?"

  Kim sighed. "Because they had to make his head bigger. He'd look really st
upid with a huge head and normal sized body."

  "Oh."

  Tuki didn't want to interrupt, but thought he really should tell Kim about what was happening. "Mo'min." He finally remembered the combination of buttons he had to press and worked up the nerve to try them. He stabbed at the moai-sized buttons with shaking fingers, and the scene shown in the skyglass flickered into existence in the top of the dome. He knew he could press another button to label the different aspects of the scene, but seeing nobody would know what the labels meant, he didn't bother. "I think the alien ships are coming towards us."

  "What? Alien ships? What alien ships?"

  Tuki divided his glance between the display above and the window of amazing glass. "There are fifty-three alien ships coming towards us."

  "Christ. Turn the radio on. Get Cuto talking to them."

  Keeble made his way up to Meledrin's console. He counted controls, flicked switches, and pushed buttons.

  "The radio is on," he said, "but there's nothing to hear."

  "Have you tried all frequencies?"

  "We rerouted one of the controls."

  Cuto said something.

  "Cuto asks if you have the radio on shower or beam?" Meledrin translated.

  Tuki had no idea what either of those things were, but apparently Keeble did.

  The dwarf swore under his breath. "It's on beam and aimed at nobody," he said, hitting some buttons with needless force. Whatever he did fixed the problem, for the harsh alien language burst into the air like a flock of startled crows.

  "Does Cuto need to come up here to speak with the hurgon," Meledrin asked.

  "Probably not," Kim replied, with Meledrin translating, "but for now it will probably be easier."

  Cuto went up to stand near Meledrin's chair and scanned the controls. It was Keeble who pressed the buttons though and pointed to a flexible stick that poked up above everything else. The alien started to speak.

  Meledrin cocked her head to one side to listen. "I believe Cuto is speaking codes at the moment, offering greetings from an ally, verifying identity. Grandson Cuto — though 'grandson' is not right. It is merely the closest approximation I can make. It seems particularly complicated and convoluted, but I believe it is something like a rank. Grandson Cuto of the T'loop Family, Lo'anen Branch, As'elda Sub-branch — he has mentioned these previously — on board the human hakan construct." She tilted her head the other way. "Then a long string of numbers."